Baku, September 12, AZERTAC

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday reiterated that the needs in flood-ravaged Pakistan are enormous and called for urgent financial support, as he wrapped up a two-day trip aimed at raising awareness of the climate-driven disaster with flights over some of the hardest hit areas, according to the organization.

The UN chief landed in Sindh province before flying over some of the worst-affected areas on his way to Balochistan, where he met with local residents, some of whom were directly impacted by the floods. Many had lost their loved ones, homes and everything they owned, amid the near continuous monsoon rainfall, flash flooding, and rain-induced landslides that have pummeled the country since mid-June.

More than 1,300 lives have been lost, and according to the United Nations, tens of millions of people are now homeless, one-third of this vast country is submerged, and livestock and crops have been wiped out. Moreover, education and learning has been interrupted for an estimated 3.5 million children, including in at least 61 refugee schools.

“I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on this scale. I have simply no words to describe what I have seen today: a flooded area that is three times the total area of my own country, Portugal,” Guterres told reporters as he concluded his field visits.

While he had been struck by the “unquantifiable depths of human suffering” he had witnessed, he stressed that he had also seen “great heights of human endurance and heroism - from emergency workers to ordinary people helping their neighbors.”

In Karachi, Guterres said that climate change caused by human activity is supercharging storms and catastrophes in Pakistan, but also in Chad, the Horn of Africa with their terrible drought and the risk of famine, and beyond.

“All these countries did not cause the problem - but they are paying the price.”

These extreme weather events have the fingerprints of human activity all over them - specifically, the burning of fossil fuels heating our planet, he added.

He recalled that the G20 countries are responsible for 80 per cent of today’s emissions - one per cent, 80 per cent - and developed economies are responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gases throughout history.